Pay rates for women face review

The Victorian Government is expected to announce an inquiry into women's pay rates.

Industrial Relations Minister Rob Hulls is tipped to launch the review today at a pay-equity conference organised by the Trades Hall Council at Melbourne's Queen Victoria Women's Centre.

Who will chair the independent inquiry is yet to be revealed, but it is believed the Government has been considering female candidates from the legal profession.

Keynote speakers at the conference will call on the Bracks Government to inquire into low-paid female industry sectors in the Victorian economy. They will demand that any inquiry examine the child-care industry, where differences exist between male and female pay rates.

Trades Hall industrial officer Brian Boyd said women were yet to achieve pay equity, with recent studies putting the pay gap at an average of 15 per cent. "Political and industrial solutions must be put in place now to end this vicious anomaly."

Mr Boyd said an inquiry could follow recent reviews by the NSW and Queensland governments and add to the body of evidence that equal pay remained "unfinished business" for Australia.

There was a weight of information about pay inequity in NSW and Queensland, "but the information here is anecdotal", Mr Boyd said.

"What we need here is a comprehensive but independent inquiry to harvest details of inequity in specific industries and workplaces so we can do something about it. Anecdotally it seems the child-care industry is one that needs examination."

Medical Scientists Association executive officer Dr Rosemary Kelly will demonstrate to the conference the gender bias in the wage-fixing principles. Barrister Simone Bingham will outline discriminatory features of running a pay-equity case under the Workplace Relations Act.